


The Gang Goes on Vacation

by SmackDown420



Category: Caduceus | Trauma Center Series, Original Work
Genre: Alternate Universe - Future, Atmospheric, Diseases, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Isekai??, Large Cast, Light Magic, Rainforests, Summer Vacation, Surgery, Trans Male Character, Wholesome, big swears, meta?, tropical
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-16
Updated: 2020-12-16
Packaged: 2021-03-10 19:00:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,754
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28112043
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SmackDown420/pseuds/SmackDown420
Summary: After encountering strange magical objects, six doctors find themselves immersed in an alien, yet familiar world. Will they find their way out? What's waiting for them on the other side? C'MERE LIL GOBLIN I KNOW YOU WANT TO READ ITTTTTBased on an original, alt-Earth universe.
Kudos: 1





	1. Deep Blue

**Author's Note:**

> my first fanfriction posted upon this wuurld
> 
> THIS SH---BAD BOSS IS A PHAT ***WIP***............... MY SCIENCE MAJOR AS--BUTT IS GOONA HAVE TO LEARN HOW TO REWRITE THIS ROUGH DRAFT...................................................... GOD HELP ALL YE FAITHFUL SOULS OF THIS FANDOM
> 
> let me know if my tags are.. ok :)
> 
> I owe credit to the wiki people at Caduceus database. good plot archive.

Born out of tragedy, a horrifying and deadly virus threatened to kill every being it touched. That was, until a team of six doctors from the Resurgam First Care hospital used their cunning and bravery to find a way to thwart it.

It’s been a few weeks since the Rosaliavirus treatment was distributed. People have settled back into their ordinary routines... mostly. Between the GUILT bioterrorism event and the Rosaliavirus pandemic, it’s clear that this world has changed forever. While the authorities work to find, treat, and isolate the last remaining cases, top scientists and advisors settle into their new, uneasy normal.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was noon on a rather quiet day at Resurgam. A group of five doctors gathered in a conference room. An agitated looking woman in a paramedic uniform walked up to the head of the table carrying a stack of papers.

“Alright, I’ve gathered you all here today to discuss this... bullcrap!”

She threw the papers onto the table, and they scatted out in front of everybody seated.

A tired looking man with a cigarette in the corner of his mouth picked up one of the papers. He flipped through the pages, skimming the words.

“Yeesh, Maria. Care to point out what you’re so upset about?”

She scowled.

“Take a closer look, you idiot!”

A stoic young man broke from his intent reading.

“It’s a report about Rosaliavirus released by Caduceus. There’s no acknowledgement of our contribution...”

“EXACTLY, KID! What the hell! Just because they’re ‘the forefront of research and treatment of the world’s diseases’ doesn’t mean they get to WALK ALL OVER US!”

The man sighed and picked his cigarette out of his mouth.

“Tch, that’s just life, Maria. The sooner you accept that the big guys can do whatever they want to us little guys, the easier it’ll be for ya.”

“WE ALMOST DIED, GABE!”

An athletic, bronze skinned man piped up.

“Hey, they didn’t take all the credit! They mention us at the end right here, see?”

Maria grabbed the paper out of the man’s hands, almost tearing it in the process. She took a short look at it and then threw it to the ground.

“That doesn’t matter! After everything we did, we should be on the front page!”

She sighed and dramatically slid to the floor.

A tranquil lady in a kimono got up and knelt down in front of her.

“What they did was certainly not honourable, but that doesn’t mean that everything we did went to waste...”  
She patted Maria’s shoulder reassuringly.

“We still saved all of those lives. The Path of Honour does not require you to take credit for every good deed.”

“And Dr. Freebird was right, you should be happy for at least getting some credit!”

She took a deep breath and relaxed her body.

“Thanks, Tomoe...”

Tomoe offered a hand to Maria and helped her up with surprising grace.

“Yaaaaaaaaawn....”

Gabe stretched backwards and put his cigarette back into the corner of his mouth.

“Are you guys done yet?”

“Yup. We’re all just going to go back to our boring jobs, because nothing ever happens here, apparently...” Maria sighed.

The athletic man tidied the papers back into a neat stack.

“Maybe we can ask Esha about it? I’m sure she would be able to do something.”

There was a brief pause in the room as everyone prepared to leave.

“Yeah, I doubt it, Hank.” Gabe smirked.

“See all you normal people around, alright?”

He got up and walked back to his office.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Office was one word for it. It was more like a one-room apartment at this point, considering he almost never leaves the hospital. Every surface was cluttered with papers, folders, old food wrappers, and cigarette butts that fell out of the obscenely full ash tray. It smelled kinda like smoke and hand sanitizer.

Off in a corner, there was a stack of empty boxes of specialized batteries for the Rapid Operation Networked Intelligence unit, or RONI for short. They were a type of supercomputer created by the government to help workers with various types of tasks. This one was specialized in the diagnosis of medical conditions.

But strangely, this afternoon she wasn’t in his office.

Gabe sighed.

“That would be fine if I didn’t have half of Portland to screen...” he muttered.

He clicked his earpiece.

“Hey RONI, since when did you get the idea you could roll out of here any time you wanted to?”

...

“ERROR #E350: UNIT OUT OF RANGE”  
“CONTACT SUPPLIER FOR TRACKING INFO”

“Heh, you’re a prankster now, are you RONI? Picking up on a little more of my personality?”

...

“ERROR #E350: UNIT OUT OF RANGE”  
“CONTACT SUPPLIER FOR TRACKING INFO”

*Sigh*

“Quit it, RONI. We have a lot of work to do today, remember?”

...

“ERROR #E350: UNIT OUT OF RANGE”  
“CONTACT SUPPLIER FOR TRACKING INFO”

*Click*

“Huh... she was right here, 20 minutes ago,” he muttered under his breath.

He booted up his desktop computer.

“Leeeet’s see... Portland gov, services, technology, RONI tracking....”

“No signal...”

...

“MAINTENANCE.” He scowled.

He shut off his computer, trying to think of a creative insult for whoever deigned to take his RONI away for maintenance at a time like this.

But as he turned around, he couldn’t help but notice a strange warmth in the room.

There was a rectangular white chest box on his coffee table. It had a familiar shape, but the light hit it with an unusual opalescent sheen. There was something... inviting about it.

He stopped for a moment, and then slowly approached and sat on the couch in front of it.

He cracked it open and glanced inside. There was a white sphere with a small dark line going around its circumference. He opened it a little more. The case’s mechanisms elevated the sphere like a pop-up book.

There was a note inside.

\------------------------------------------

DEEP BLUE IN S MAJOR

TWIST TO OPEN

HOLD IN HANDS

REMEMBER HOME

\------------------------------------------

“What the hell is this...?”

He sat there for a while, trying to decide whether or not it was worth it, or even safe, to follow the note’s advice. A few minutes passed in deep thought.

“Welp, I sure hope the Raging Bomber doesn’t have any copy cats...”

He reached into the case and held the sphere with both hands. The two hemispheres came apart with surprising ease.

They revealed a small disk, with a four-lobed design on both surfaces. It was gently drifting in the air as if gravity didn’t exist, and glowing softly in the light.

He dropped them and recoiled slightly. Slowly, he reached out to touch it. As soon as it made contact with his finger, it fell back onto the table.

He picked it up, wondering if what he saw was even real.

The cameras would probably know, right? I should check the security office... 

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

...


	2. Somewhere From a Memory

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gabe finds himself in a doctor's office that's not his own.

He opened his eyes. It was dark, and oddly more humid.

The disk was gone. Going off vague shapes, he was standing in a homely, cluttered office a lot like his own.

Before his eyes had time to adjust to the darkness, the door opened.

“AAH!”

A scrawny, black haired man with a shoulder bag jumped back from the door.

“Ah! Ahh. Sorry about that. Um, may I ask what you’re doing in my office? Oh! Are you a patient?”

He stood there, aghast.

“ _what...._ What are you talking about, this is _my_ office---”

“Heh, I know you’re jealous, but it’s got my name right here on the door, see? ‘Chin Tsen’. Are you feelin’ alright, buddy? I’m a doctor.”

He entered the office slowly and turned on the lights.

“I was just there--- What the _hell_ is going on!?”

“Hey, calm down, everything is goona be alright. Can you tell me your name?”

He pulled up a stool and pat it welcomingly.

He stood his ground, mind running back to that “incident” at USAMRIID. He began subtly scanning the features of the room. Outside the window, there was a city, still dark. It was like nothing he had ever seen before. Skyscrapers topped with huge translucent, flat blades, apartments with extensive plant-covered rooves... Wherever he was, he sure as hell was not in Portland.

“I’m a doctor too, and I’m _fine_ , _as long as you’re not keeping me prisoner_...”

He backed up to a wall and put a hand into his pocket, clicking his earpiece in the vain hope that RONI would be around to save his ass once again.

Chin leaned on the opposite wall, trying to look as non-threatening as possible.

“Nobody’s keeping you here, buddy, but you’ve got me quite worried! A little acoustic scan wouldn’t hurt...”

Gabe let out a long sigh.

“Please tell me we’re at least still in America...”

“What’s America?”

Gabe laughed bleakly.

“It’s a country.”

He pulled out his phone. No signal. Of course.

There was a look of surprise on Chin’s face.

“Buddy, your phone’s straight out of a history book!”

He shook his head. “Hah, you aren’t exactly from here, are you?”

“No.” He looked at him with a deadpan expression.

“Would you even have an identity chip if I asked for it?”

“No.”

“A wallet?”

_“I’m not letting you touch my wallet._ ”

Chin sighed, smiling.

“That’s something we both understand!”

He set his bag onto the ground and closed the door. A small device was produced from his pocket, and he pulled its corners apart. A rectangular glowing screen deployed from its corners. He got ready to type.

“Well, do you remember where you live?”

Gabe paused briefly, considering his options. He sure as hell did _not_ appreciate being treated like a senile old man, but, he might as well listen to him.

“’Portland’, ‘Maine’, ‘America’, ‘Resurgam’, am I spelling that right? I’m sorry, buddy, but it’s coming up dry...”

“Your name?”

“Gabriel Cunningham.”

“...”

He closed his device.

“I’m guessing you don’t have any Shels, either...” He rubbed his face.

“Listen, I just finished my shift a few minutes ago. I could let you stay at my place for a while until you... regain your bearings. Let me just... get a few things from here first... Sound like a deal?”

Gabe looked out of the window again.

_Like a scene from Star Trek..._

“Looks like I have nowhere else to go.”

Chin clapped his hands together with a mixture of excitement and relief.

“Alright, buddy. Follow me.”

They rode the elevator down to the lobby and stepped out into the city understory.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AWW YEAH HONEY ITS 4PM TIME FOR ENDLESS EXPOSITION BABEEEYYYYYYYYYYYYY


	3. The (Railroad) Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gabe and Chin (and some weird kid) take public transport.

After about five minutes of gliding along the city waterways, they had arrived at their destination. Their streamlined vehicle decelerated smoothly and quickly... A little too quickly.

Gabe was thrown forward, bonking his head off the pole in front of him. After a brief moment of regretting his decision of not holding onto it, the door next to him slid open. The bus driver called out:

“MYOLA CITY RAILSTATION 3!!”

“That’s our stop, buddy!” Chin gestured.

Gabe stepped out onto the platform, rubbing the pole-shaped indent on his forehead. Like an astronaut with an empty oxygen tank, he dug into his suit pockets with rabid desperation. In a few seconds, he was safe with another lit cigarette in his mouth. He took a few deep breaths and centred himself once again.

The rail station was a modest little platform with a roof and a few amenities. Facing it was the city, full of silver, twinkling lights and the dark ocean beyond. Behind it was the silhouette of a florid mountain range. The sky was full of stars. It looked like someone got glitter in their cream and decided, “Meh, I’ll use this in my coffee anyway”. It was a little crowded, although not very noisy or chaotic. There was just the background noise of quiet conversations, and a chorus of nighttime insects.

Chin leisurely stepped up onto the platform, smirking.

“Man, was that your first ride on public transit? I don’t usually take the skater but dang!”

He retaliated. “I was suffocating the whole time! Maybe if that bastard had let me smoke, I would’ve been able to think clearly...”

Chin shook his head.

“Smoking is unhealthy for you and people around you! You’re lucky I let you off the hook for smoking in the dang _clinic_ , of all places...”

“Man, I haven’t heard that one before...”

He took an exaggerated drag off his cigarette and blew a smoke ring off the edge of the platform.

“Buddy, you really are out of a history book! Next you’re goona say it’s 2004...”

Chin smiled at him awkwardly. Gabe shrugged in reply.

“It’s 2020, actually...”

Chin grimaced and stretched his arms.

“You know what, I’m just goona stop askin’!”

They waited on the platform for a while, taking in the ambience. Skate-cars came and went, dropping off more and more people onto the little platform. The sounds of buzzing and chirping were gradually overshadowed by increasingly loud talking.

\---

They were leaning on the rails, looking out over the city. The sky was beginning to brighten, ever so slightly.

“It doesn’t usually take this long.”

He yawned.

The next skater arrived, dropping off a few dozen people. Out of them, there was one massive figure, standing about a head above the crowd. Although unable to conceal his full size, he was still shyly ducking down.

Chin perked up, waving in the direction of the docks.

“Heeeey!! That’s my friend, Sam!”

The man was oblivious for a moment, almost withdrawing a little upon hearing his name, until looking over and realizing it was his friend calling him. He stood up and made his way toward them. He was wearing a beanie hat with a... flower? on top of it, and an oversized shawl that covered most of his upper body.

“Hi, Chin!”

“Heeey, kid! You’re late today! Long shift?”

“Yeah, there were a few, uh, complications... I gave the next doc the best instructions I could, and I really did do everything _I_ could, but...”

He scratched the back of his head and looked away. It was quick, but there was almost certainly an extra _pair of arms_ under his lifted shawl...

“I’m pretty sure he’s not going to make it...”

“Huh..? That’s hard, kid...”

By this point, their conversation had fallen by the wayside. Gabe was staring at the kid intently. _Is this sort of thing normal here?!_

“It’ll be alright, eh?”

He gave him a few reassuring pats on his shoulder. Sam took a long, deep breath, and relaxed. Chin turned back around towards the rail where Gabe was standing.

“Oh! I’m sorry buddy, I almost forgot about you! Sam, this is, uh, Gabe, he’s a bit... _lost_ , so I’m just letting him stay at my place for a while before he, uh, regains his bearings. Gabe, this is Sam: he also works at the hospital, like me.”

After a second, there was a spark of recognition in big guy’s eyes.

“You look just like that one character from _Emergency_ : Dr. Cunningham! Is your name really Gabe, too?”

He giggled, with a hand under his shawl covering his mouth.

“That’s a really good cosplay!”

Gabe didn’t quite know how to respond.

“What are you talking about, kid..?”

“U-uh-- Like the comic book, right? I think it even got a movie, too. Um--- Here, I-I’ll show you!”

He produced a device from his pocket and slid out a holographic screen, frantically scrolling and typing, then finally bringing up an image. He knelt down to eye level and showed him the screen.

“That’s you, see?”

That was him, alright. A svelte man in a neat orange suit and white coat, complete with a messy greenish ponytail and an old cigarette in his mouth. _Scarily accurate..._

Chin looked over.

“Yeah, oh my gosh! Good eye, Sam!”

The now tomato-red guy gave a thumbs up.

“Buddy, do you remember being at a convention or something? I don’t know what they got out there, but maybe someone drugged you..?”

Gabe looked up in exasperation. _I swear, if these bastards are gaslighting me so they can kidnap me to some_ _Delphi_ _base... What sort of crazy person just invites a stranger to their house?!_

“Aaaaaaahhhhh---- Don’t worry, buddy. Hopefully you can sleep it off...”

_Then again, they couldn’t have built a whole-ass city for this... And the amount of people around..._

_But that disk.... What was that?_

“Yeah, this’ll all just be a dream, I’m sure.”

The crowd suddenly went quiet. A moment later, the train finally slid into the station. The conductor stuck his head out of the window, holding a megaphone.

“SORRY ABOUT THAT DELAY FELLAS, THERE WAS AN OBSTRUCTION ON THE RAILS THAT NEEDED A SQUAD OF DRILL-SUITS TA BUST UP!”

“READ ABOUT IT IN THE AURIMEL DRIP: PLEASE, MY LIL BROTHER WOULD BE SO HAPPY.”

“ANYWAYS, CHEER FOR OUR HEROES, FELLAS!!”

On cue, the train doors opened and released a half dozen people in mechanized suits. The crowd cheered, and they waved back with their massive metal appendages. The crowd calmed down as the crew got out of their suits and settled down at a docks, waiting for their boss to pick them up.

People streamed into the train cars, the large portion of hospital staff eager to finally get back home.

\-----------------------

As per his deal with the train conductor, who _somehow_ caught him from five cars away, Gabe sat at an opened window seat, leaning out to exhale. Chin snoozed beside him, and Sam stood in the aisle, holding onto the top of the seat next to him. He knew from experience, that he was too heavy to sit there.

They rode through a dense tropical forest, past mountains and streams and ruined buildings. From the amount of them, he could’ve guessed they used to be cities, now ruined from time, or something else... By this point, the sun was rising above the land, staining the sky bright pink. Although he was in a strong breeze, he could tell that the air around him was heating up.

A deep voice spoke out softly.

“Uhm... Do you know where we are?”

“What?! Was I supposed to be keeping track?!”

“N-No, uh...”

The large figure smoothed the back of his head again.

“It’s just, you seem _really_ lost, like you really haven’t seen anything here before-- I don’t know what happened, but you look really shaken up, I feel bad...”

...

“This place we’re travelling through right now, is in southern Myola, just between Myola City and Aurimel-- that’s our stop. You can tell we’re getting closer because there’s so many streams, see?”

He stuck an arm over Chin, pointing out the window. It was covered with huge scars that had long since healed.

“This area has a lot of ecological importance. If you stuck your head out the window, you would be able to see the neat structures this railroad is built on to protect it-- but don’t do that! It’s dangerous.”

“So, this place is pretty popular with tourists, because a little further down the road, there’s a region with the highest density of waterfalls in the world! There’s even a special species of barnacle flowers that grows there. They look a lot like my hat.”

He took off his beanie and handed it to Gabe. It was analyzed briefly and handed back.

“Sorry kid, none of this looks familiar to me. Thanks for the effort, though.”

_Man, was this how that amnesiac kid felt when I pulled him out of prison?_

_At least I don’t have a world-ending disease to worry about..._

The beanie changed hands once more, and got stuck into the giant’s pockets.

“I’m sorry, mister...”

Gabe sighed.

_This has to be the weirdest day of my life. How did I even get--_

“Oh-- kid! Do you know anything about a weird disk that can float around and... teleport you places? I remember touching one of those before I got here.”

“Huh..? I think Cirusite can do some weird stuff under certain conditions. Was it all pink and glowy? ...Wait a second, you didn’t actually _touch_ it, did you?!”

“No, it was white-- Is there something I should be worrying about?!”

“Ah-- actually, never mind. It shouldn’t be able to _teleport_ you anyway, and it doesn’t make sense for there to just be a chunk of it floating around for no reason...”

“Cirusite, huh?”

“Yeah, it’s this stuff found mostly in outer space- it has a ton of applications to modern technology, but it was also kinda... the reason for the cataclysm... They always taught us in school to never pick up any weird glowing rocks.”

“The _cataclysm_?”

“--Oh, that’s another thing... I guess if you’re just like Dr. Cunningham, a lot of things would be confusing!”

“I _am_ Dr. Cunningham!”

He giggled and blushed again, covering his mouth. _How cool would it be if he actually was..? I mean, he acts just like him... --No..! But what if... --oh, he looks frightened--_

“Well, you don’t have to worry at all about the cataclysm- it’s been over for a long time. We live in a healing world.”

Sam took a deep breath and put a hand behind his head again, staring out the window. He was smiling warmly. Gabe couldn’t help but stare at the two extra arms still folded at his waist.

“I guess this alien world comes complete with aliens too, eh kid? You guys must get a lot of stuff done with all those hands!”

He raised his arms and wiggled his fingers.

Sam jumped a little and folded his arms back under his shawl.

“--Oh, uhm... I-I forgot-- Sorry if I, uh... scared you or anything.”

“Is it... just you?”

“...Yeah.”

He looked away, with a sort of subdued sadness.

\------------

They endured a few minutes of awkward silence before the train reached their stop. The conductor gave the horn a few good pulls before reaching to the megaphone.

“AURIMEL STATION, EVERYBODY WAAAAAAAKE UUUUUUPPPP!!!!!”

“ _Gah!_ ”

Chin jolted awake, alongside many of the other groggy passengers.

“That’s our stop, buddy!”

They exited the train and stretched out. By this time, the sun was fully above the horizon and it was already considerably warmer than when they had departed. Gabe took his white coat off and slung it over his shoulder.

“Looks like this is where we part ways. See you next time, Sam!”

“Um, bye guys!”

He nodded and walked a few paces, before remembering something and turning around.

“I hope you remember some stuff, mister!”

...And with that, they headed off towards home.

**Author's Note:**

> wip :)
> 
> YEET GET IN MY UNIVERSE BOI
> 
> hhhnnnnggg I... am cring but I am free


End file.
